Staycation: Restaurant night

When vacationing, many people tend to eat out either all or most of the time. You may think that with a staycation, this wouldn’t be possible. I disagree! You can scour your newspaper and home mailings for valuable coupons to local restaurants and venture out to try something new OR you can have a restaurant experience in your own home! Here’s how:

• Pick your cuisine. Whether your family would like Mexican, Italian, Chinese, or American, you first need to make this decision. Be sure to evaluate your stockpile of groceries when making the choice. You don’t want to blow your staycation budget on one meal!
• Create an atmosphere based on your chosen cuisine. For Mexican you can use brightly colored fabrics to drape around the room with pictures of sombreros or even a cactus or two. For Italian you can create a romantic mood by having candles on the table or print up pictures of Italy to stick on the walls. The Internet is a great source to help with the decor!
• Have everyone “dining out” to dress the part. If you want the dinner to have a formal feel, have accordingly. If you are planning an American theme, how fun would it be for everyone to dress in their favorite sport uniform?
• Make a menu. You can type something up and add stickers or clip art to fit the “restaurant” theme. You can even give the dishes the same names as your favorite dining out meals. To avoid having an expensive dinner, make sure your copy cat dishes are based on your stockpile. Another thought would be to drive to your favorite restaurant and grab a couple of their to go menus; then you could just glue in your meal choices inside! Also, instead of printing a menu, you could grab your child’s easel or chalkboard and write the menu on that!
• Assign roles. You will need a hos/hostess, a server, a chef, and a dishwasher. Try to change traditional roles to give other a chance to experience something different. For example, if mom usually cooks dinner, have another family member perform this duty.
• Enjoy your restaurant staycation meal!

Thanks to Sharon of Momondealz for this post!

photo source: inkity.com